Can Programmers, Journalists Get Along in One Newsroom?

How do you merge the culture of the programming environment with the culture of the newsroom? Part of a series on the “programmer/journalist” trend.

“You need to go do what you’re being asked to build,” he [Matt Waite] said. “Spend a night on the sports copy desk taking high school football scores and you’ll get an idea of what a football score taking app should do, no matter what the editor is telling you.”

Similarly, journalists would do well to sit with a programmer and watch their ideas get turned into an app.

Published: October 19, 2009

Publication:PBS MediaShift, a blog that tracks how new media — from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism — are changing society and culture.

About

I'm looking for my next opportunity to solve user interface problems and make an impact. Currently, I'm teaching code to high school students with CodeNation (formerly ScriptEd) and I'm a contributor on a mobile canvassing app called Reach. Some of my projects are on GitHub. I blog about what I'm learning and random tidbits that catch my fancy. Contact me at mtaylor@megantaylor.org